REGION II MEETING
M&T BANK
Attendance
Schools:
SUNY Brockport: Scott
Atkinson
SUNY Geneseo: Susan
Romano
Vendors:
Bank of
Bank One: Michael
Woody
Citibank: Laura
Worley, Debi Mansour
Citizens Bank: Jean Fura
College Board: Scott
Lewis
College Loan Corporation:
Vince Scalise
Edamerica: Holly Zaglaniczny
EDFUND: Dan Dreves
Fifth Third Bank: Marc
Woolf
HSBC Bank: Sherrie
Hoadley
M&T Bank: Andy
Leardini, Rick Ross, Tony Goodwin
Nellie Mae: Katrina
Delgrosso, Abbey Linsner
Nelnet: Anne Delplato
NYHESC: Ed Gilbert
Wachovia: Karen
Blankenburg
Guest Speaker from
Equifax: Credit Ratings and Credit
Scoring
§
Some bankruptcies stay on the credit reports for
10 years, some for 7 years.
§
In general, records remain on your credit report
for 7 years of date of close (e.g. credit cards, loans, etc.).
§
Who can look at your credit report? Any entity that has a permissible purpose.
§ Some companies check your credit report to offer you pre-approved credit. You can opt out of this for up to 2 years which would prevent these companies from checking your credit/pre-approving you during that time.
§ If there are errors on the credit report, Equifax has 30 days to fix it. The consumer must report this to the credit bureau to get this process started by sending written documentation of the error. Also, other credit bureaus can fix the same errors on their reports—all 3 main bureaus communicate with each other. So if a consumer fixes their credit report with 1 entity, they are fixing it with all 3. This was NOT the case years ago—this is quite an improvement in the system because consumers used to have to fix with all 3 bureaus separately. However, please note that there may still be some other discrepancies between the 3 credit bureau reports, so it is a good idea to pull all 3 of them every year to make sure they are accurate.
§ If a store closes and the store credit card is still open, you can contact the credit bureau to have them help you remove that.
§ Student loans show up right away on a credit report and they help a credit score, even if they are not currently in repayment.
§ If a family pays off Stafford/Direct Loans right after graduation, that will help the credit score because it shows the payment of a debt, which is helpful for the credit score—shows that the borrower is a good payer.
§ You can put a Fraud Alert or consumer statement on the credit file with the bureaus so that will prevent automatic approvals of credit without checking with you to make sure you were the one to request the credit.
§ Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law enacted in 1970.
§ AnnualCreditReport.com – this started recently—it allows 1 free credit report per year for consumers.
§ Credit scores are a way to assess the risk of a borrower. If the FICO score is in the low 600s or lower, they are a much higher risk because they probably have charge off accounts on their credit history.
§ Payment history affects the credit score the most (35% of the score comes from this). Also, amounts owed (30% of score), then length of credit history (15%), then type of credit used and new credit (10% each). FICO looks at inquiries on a credit report for a 9 month period. Technically, they could look at the inquiries for the past 2 years.
§ Equifax also does a BEACON FICO score—pretty close to FICO (Fair Isaac score). Score Power tells you what your score is and explains what could happen if you pay off some of your credit or make other changes. Score Watch monitors your score and notifies you when a change in your score could impact the interest rates you are likely to receive on a selected type of loan.
§ FICO scores range from 300-850. Higher the score, lower the risk. Majority of scores are in 600s and 700s. Population breakdown with scores:
o 780+: 20%
o 745-780: 20%
o 690-745: 20%
o 620-690: 20%
o <619: 20%
§ Collection agencies may be willing to settle for only ½ of the actual debt—they only get paid if they settle with the borrower for some sort of payment arrangement/payoff.
§ Discussed identity theft examples. Make sure to shred your mail that has your personal information on it.
Treasurer’s Report
(Scott Atkinson—on behalf of Nora Bell):
§ Balance = $414.07
Exec Council Update:
§ No update because the Exec Council meeting is going on right now.
HESC Update (Ed
Gilbert):
§ TAP stats for TAP on the Web—135,000 apps so far—only 7% via paper
§ TAP awards for 0506 should be coming out soon. NY budget was actually passed by the deadline of 4/1.
§ Remittance Advices will be available every Friday until August for 04-05.
§ Lender Servicer Reports—go out automatically via paper right now, but they are now going to go out via the web only.
§ Bulletins coming out regarding the implementation of the PLUS credit checks. That will be available to schools in May.
§ Empire EFT: getting ready to roll that out. Testing with a couple of large schools, then they will roll it out. Starting in May.
Lender News:
§ Educaid/Wachovia: Jan Klotz will be retiring in June.
§ Bank One: Representing both Chase and Bank One in the market. Michael will be the rep for both Chase and Bank One for Regions 1 and 2.
§ M&T Bank: Andy Leardini will now be the rep for Regions 1, 2 and 3.
§
College Loan Corporation: Opening their
Committee Updates
Support Staff
Workshop Committee:
§ Friday, June 3rd at Rochester Business Institute
Federal Update:
§ If you are interested, take a look at the bills that are on the table for reauthorization (at www.nasfaa.org).
Mall Nights:
§
May 3rd from
Summer
Outing/Meeting:
§
Next Region 2 meeting: Monday, May 23rd at
§ Summer meeting: Susan Romano will chair this planning committee. Scott Atkinson will also help.